Earth’s polar outflow evolution from mid-Archean to present

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kislyakova ◽  
Colin Johnstone ◽  
Manuel Scherf ◽  
Mats Holmström ◽  
Igor Alexeev ◽  
...  

<p>Habitable conditions on Earth developed in a tight connection to the evolution of terrestrial atmosphere which was strongly influenced by atmospheric escape. In this study, we investigated the evolution of the polar ion outflow from the Earth’s open field line bundle starting from mid-Archean (three gigayears ago) and to present. We performed Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations and estimated upper limits on escape rates from the Earth's polar areas assuming the present-day composition of the atmosphere. We performed two additional simulations with lower mixing ratios of oxygen of 1% and 15% to account for the composition changes after the Great Oxydation Event (GOE).</p> <p>According to our estimates, the maximum loss rates due to polar outflow was reached three gigayears ago equal to 3.3 x 10<sup>27 </sup>s<sup>-1</sup> and 2.4 x 10<sup>27 </sup>s<sup>-1</sup> for oxygen and nitrogen, respectively. We estimate the total maximum integrated mass loss equal to 39% and 10% of the modern atmosphere's mass, for oxygen and nitrogen, respectively. We also show that escape rates increase, if the oxygen mixing ratio is decreased (GOE simulations), which is due to reduced thermospheric cooling. According to these results, the main factors that governed the polar outflow in the considered time period are the evolution of the XUV radiation of the Sun and the atmosphere's composition. The evolution of the Earth's magnetic field plays a less important role. We conclude that although the atmosphere that has a present-day composition can survive the escape due to polar outflow from 3 gigayears ago and later, a higher level of CO<sub>2</sub> between 3.0 and 2.0 Ga is likely necessary to reduce the escape.</p>

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Kislyakova ◽  
Colin Johnstone ◽  
Manuel Scherf ◽  
Helmut Lammer ◽  
Mats Holmström ◽  
...  

<p>The evolution of habitable conditions on Earth is tightly connected to the evolution of its atmosphere which, in turn, is strongly influenced by atmospheric escape. We investigate the evolution of the the polar wind outflow from the magnetic cusps which is the dominant escape mechanism on the Earth. We perform Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations and estimate the upper limits on escape rates from the Earth's cusps starting from three gigayears ago (Ga) to present assuming the present-day composition of the atmosphere. We perform one additional simulation with a lower mixing ratio of oxygen of 1% to account for the conditions shortly after the Great Oxydation Event (GOE). We account for the evolution of the magnetic field of the Earth by adjusting the polar opening angle and the location of the magnetosphere's substellar point.</p><p>Our results present an upper limit on the escape rates, but they indicate that polar wind escape rates for nitrogen and oxygen ions were likely much higher in the past.  We estimate the maximum total loss rates due to polar wind of 2.0x10<sup>18</sup> kg and 5.2x10<sup>17</sup> kg for oxygen and nitrogen, respectively. According to our results, the main factors that governed the polar wind outflow in the considered time period are the evolution of the XUV radiation of the Sun and the atmosphere's composition. The evolution of the Earth's magnetic field plays a less important role. We conclude that although the atmosphere with the present-day composition can survive the escape due to polar wind outflow, a higher level of CO<sub>2</sub> between 3.0 and 2.0 Ga is likely necessary to reduce the escape.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 3001-3025 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Yu ◽  
R. Mathur ◽  
G. Sarwar ◽  
D. Kang ◽  
D. Tong ◽  
...  

Abstract. A critical module of air quality models is the photochemical mechanism. In this study, the impact of the three photochemical mechanisms (CB4, CB05, SAPRC-99) on the Eta-Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model's forecast performance for O3, and its related precursors has been assessed over the eastern United States with observations obtained by aircraft (NOAA P-3 and NASA DC-8) flights, ship and two surface networks (AIRNow and AIRMAP) during the 2004 International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation (ICARTT) study. The results show that overall none of the mechanisms performs systematically better than the others. On the other hand, at the AIRNow surface sites, CB05 has the best performance with the normalized mean bias (NMB) of 3.9%, followed by CB4 (NMB=−5.7%) and SAPRC-99 (NMB=10.6%) for observed O3≥75 ppb, whereas CB4 has the best performance with the least overestimation for observed O3<75 ppb. On the basis of comparisons with aircraft P-3 measurements, there were consistent overestimations of O3, NOz, PAN and NOy and consistent underestimations of CO, HNO3, NO2, NO, SO2 and terpenes for all three mechanisms although the NMB values for each species and mechanisms were different. The results of aircraft DC-8 show that CB05 predicts the H2O2 mixing ratios most closely to the observations (NMB=10.8%), whereas CB4 and SAPRC-99 overestimated (NMB=74.7%) and underestimated (NMB=−25.5%) H2O2 mixing ratios significantly, respectively. For different air mass flows over the Gulf of Maine on the basis of the ship data, the three mechanisms have relatively better performance for O3, isoprene and SO2 for the clean marine or continental flows but relatively better performance for CO, NO2 and NO for southwesterly/westerly offshore flows. The results of the O3-NOz slopes over the ocean indicate that SAPRC-99 has the highest upper limits of the ozone production efficiency (εN) (5.8), followed by CB05 (4.5) and CB4 (4.0) although they are much lower than that inferred from the observation (11.8), being consistent with the fact that on average, SAPRC-99 produces the highest O3, followed by CB05 and CB4, across all O3 mixing ratio ranges


Author(s):  
L. Moore ◽  
J. I. Moses ◽  
H. Melin ◽  
T. S. Stallard ◽  
J. O’Donoghue

H 3 + has been detected at all of the solar system giant planets aside from Neptune. Current observational upper limits imply that there is far less H 3 + emission at Neptune than rudimentary modelling would suggest. Here, we explore via modelling a range of atmospheric conditions in order to find some that could be consistent with observational constraints. In particular, we consider that the upper atmosphere might be much cooler than it was during the 1989 Voyager 2 encounter, and we examine the impact of an enhanced influx of external material that could act to reduce H 3 + density. Resulting ionosphere models that are consistent with existing H 3 + observational constraints have an exospheric temperature of 450 K or less, 300 K lower than the Voyager 2 value. Alternatively, if a topside CO influx of 2 × 10 8  cm −2  s −1 is imposed, the upper atmospheric temperature can be higher, up to 550 K. The potential cooling of Neptune’s atmosphere is relevant for poorly understood giant planet thermospheric energetics, and would also impact aerobreaking manoeuvers for any future spacecraft. Such a large CO influx, if present, could imply Triton is a very active moon with prominent atmospheric escape, and/or that Neptune’s rings significantly modify its upper atmosphere, and the introduction of so much exogenic material would complicate interpretation of the origin of species observed in Neptune’s lower atmosphere. This article is part a discussion meeting issue ‘Future exploration of ice giant systems’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 623 ◽  
pp. A41 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Palle ◽  
G. Nowak ◽  
R. Luque ◽  
D. Hidalgo ◽  
O. Barragán ◽  
...  

Context. The Kepler extended mission, also known as K2, has provided the community with a wealth of planetary candidates that orbit stars typically much brighter than the targets of the original mission. These planet candidates are suitable for further spectroscopic follow-up and precise mass determinations, leading ultimately to the construction of empirical mass-radius diagrams. Particularly interesting is to constrain the properties of planets that are between Earth and Neptune in size, the most abundant type of planet orbiting Sun-like stars with periods of less than a few years. Aims. Among many other K2 candidates, we discovered a multi-planetary system around EPIC 246471491, referred to henceforth as K2-285, which contains four planets, ranging in size from twice the size of Earth to nearly the size of Neptune. We aim here at confirming their planetary nature and characterizing the properties of this system. Methods. We measure the mass of the planets of the K2-285 system by means of precise radial-velocity measurements using the CARMENES spectrograph and the HARPS-N spectrograph. Results. With our data we are able to determine the mass of the two inner planets of the system with a precision better than 15%, and place upper limits on the masses of the two outer planets. Conclusions. We find that K2-285b has a mass of Mb = 9.68−1.37+1.21 M⊕ and a radius of Rb = 2.59−0.06+0.06 R⊕, yielding a mean density of ρb = 3.07−0.45+0.45 g cm−3, while K2-285c has a mass of Mc = 15.68−2.13+2.28 M⊕, radius of Rc = 3.53−0.08+0.08 R⊕, and a mean density of ρc = 1.95−0.28+0.32 g cm−3. For K2-285d (Rd = 2.48−0.06+0.06 R⊕) and K2-285e (Re = 1.95−0.05+0.05 R⊕), the upper limits for the masses are 6.5 M⊕ and 10.7 M⊕, respectively. The system is thus composed of an (almost) Neptune-twin planet (in mass and radius), two sub-Neptunes with very different densities and presumably bulk composition, and a fourth planet in the outermost orbit that resides right in the middle of the super-Earth/sub-Neptune radius gap. Future comparative planetology studies of this system would provide useful insights into planetary formation, and also a good test of atmospheric escape and evolution theories.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 5565-5590 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Laeng ◽  
J. Plieninger ◽  
T. von Clarmann ◽  
U. Grabowski ◽  
G. Stiller ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) was an infra-red (IR) limb emission spectrometer on the Envisat platform. It measured during day and night, pole-to-pole, over an altitude range from 6 to 70 km in nominal mode and up to 170 km in special modes, depending on the measurement mode, producing more than 1000 profiles day−1. We present the results of a validation study of methane version V5R_CH4_222 retrieved with the IMK/IAA MIPAS scientific level 2 processor. The level 1 spectra are provided by ESA, the version 5 was used. The time period covered corresponds to the period when MIPAS measured at reduced spectral resolution, i.e. 2005–2012. The comparison with satellite instruments includes the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS), the HALogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE), the Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) and the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY). Furthermore, comparisons with MkIV balloon-borne solar occultation measurements and with air sampling measurements performed by the University of Frankfurt are presented. The validation activities include bias determination, in selected cases, assessment of histograms and comparison of corresponding climatologies. Above 50 km altitude, MIPAS methane mixing ratios agree within 3% with ACE-FTS and SOFIE. Between 30 and 40 km an agreement within 3% with SCIAMACHY has been found. In the middle stratosphere, there is no clear indication of a MIPAS bias since comparisons with various instruments contradict each other. In the lower stratosphere (below about 25–30 km) MIPAS CH4 is biased high with respect to satellite instruments, and the most likely estimate of this bias is 14%. However, in the comparison with CH4 data obtained from cryosampler measurements, there is no evidence of a MIPAS high bias between 20 and 25 km altitude. Precision validation is performed on collocated MIPAS-MIPAS pairs and suggests a slight underestimation of its errors by a factor of 1.2. A parametric model consisting of constant, linear, QBO and several sine and cosine terms with different periods has been fitted to the temporal variation of differences of stratospheric CH4 measurements by MIPAS and ACE-FTS for all 10° latitude/1–2 km altitude bins. Only few significant drifts can be calculated, due to the lack of data. Significant drifts with respect to ACE-FTS tend to have higher absolute values in the Northern Hemisphere, have no pronounced tendency in the sign, and do not exceed 0.2 ppmv per decade in absolute value.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 7247-7282
Author(s):  
M. Krebsbach ◽  
C. Schiller ◽  
D. Brunner ◽  
G. Günther ◽  
M. I. Hegglin ◽  
...  

Abstract. Airborne high resolution in situ measurements of a large set of trace gases including ozone (O3) and total water (H2O) in the upper troposphere and the lowermost stratosphere (UT/LMS) have been performed above Europe within the SPURT project. With its innovative campaign concept, SPURT provides an extensive data coverage of the UT/LMS in each season within the time period between November 2001 and July 2003. Ozone volume mixing ratios in the LMS show a distinct spring maximum and autumn minimum, whereas the O3 seasonal cycle in the UT is shifted by 2 to 3 month later towards the end of the year. The more variable H2O measurements reveal a maximum during spring/summer and a minimum during autumn/winter with no phase shift between the two atmospheric compartments. For a comprehensive insight into trace gas composition and variability in the UT/LMS several statistical methods are applied using chemical, thermal and dynamical vertical coordinates. In particular, 2-dimensional probability distribution functions serve as a tool to transform localised aircraft data to a more comprehensive view of the probed atmospheric region. It appears that both trace gases, O3 and H2O, reveal the most compact arrangement and are best correlated in the view of potential vorticity (PV) and distance to the local tropopause, indicating an advanced mixing state on these surfaces. Thus, strong gradients of PV seem to act as a transport barrier both in the vertical and the horizontal direction. The alignment of trace gas isopleths reflects the existence of a year-round extra-tropical tropopause transition layer. The SPURT measurements reveal that this layer is mainly affected by stratospheric air during winter/spring and by tropospheric air during autumn/summer. Mixing entropy values for O3 and H2O in the LMS appear to be maximal during spring and summer, respectively, indicating highest variability of these trace gases during the respective seasons.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer D. Hegarty ◽  
Karen E. Cady-Pereira ◽  
Vivienne H. Payne ◽  
Susan S. Kulawik ◽  
John R. Worden ◽  
...  

Abstract. Single footprint retrievals of carbon monoxide from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) are evaluated using aircraft in situ observations. The aircraft data are from the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole (HIPPO, 2009–2011), the first three Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom, 2016–2017) campaigns and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network Aircraft Program from 2006–2017. The retrievals are obtained using an optimal estimation approach within the MUlti-SpEctra, MUlti-SpEcies, MUlti-Sensors (MUSES) algorithm. Retrieval biases and estimated errors are evaluated across a range of latitudes from the sub-polar to tropical regions over both ocean and land points. AIRS MUSES CO profiles were compared with HIPPO, ATom, and NOAA GML aircraft observations with a coincidence of 9 hours and 50 km to estimate retrieval biases and standard deviations. Comparisons were done for different pressure levels and column averages, latitudes, day, night, land, and ocean observations. We find mean biases of +6.6 % +/− 4.6 %, +0.6 % +/− 3.2 %, −6.1 % +/− 3.0 %, and 1.4 % +/− 3.6 %, for 750 hPa, 510 hPa, 287 hPa, and the column averages, respectively. The mean standard deviation is 15 %, 11 %, 12 %, and 9 % at these same pressure levels, respectively. Observation errors (theoretical errors) from the retrievals were found to be broadly consistent in magnitude with those estimated empirically from ensembles of satellite aircraft comparisons. The GML Aircraft Program comparisons generally had higher standard deviations and biases than the HIPPO and ATom comparisons. Since the GML aircraft flights do not go as high as the HIPPO and ATom flights, results from these GML comparisons are more sensitive to the choice of method for extrapolation of the aircraft profile above the uppermost measurement altitude. The AIRS retrieval performance shows little sensitivity to surface type (land or ocean) or day or night but some sensitivity to latitude. Comparisons to the NOAA GML set spanning the years 2006–2017 show that the AIRS retrievals are able to capture the distinct seasonal cycles but show a high bias of ~20 % in the lower troposphere during the summer when observed CO mixing ratios are at annual minimum values. The retrieval bias drift was examined over the same period and found to be small at < 0.5 % over the 2006–2017 time period.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 3861-3878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamadou Diallo ◽  
Bernard Legras ◽  
Eric Ray ◽  
Andreas Engel ◽  
Juan A. Añel

Abstract. In this study, we construct a new monthly zonal mean carbon dioxide (CO2) distribution from the upper troposphere to the stratosphere over the 2000–2010 time period. This reconstructed CO2 product is based on a Lagrangian backward trajectory model driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis meteorology and tropospheric CO2 measurements. Comparisons of our CO2 product to extratropical in situ measurements from aircraft transects and balloon profiles show remarkably good agreement. The main features of the CO2 distribution include (1) relatively large mixing ratios in the tropical stratosphere; (2) seasonal variability in the extratropics, with relatively high mixing ratios in the summer and autumn hemisphere in the 15–20 km altitude layer; and (3) decreasing mixing ratios with increasing altitude from the upper troposphere to the middle stratosphere ( ∼ 35 km). These features are consistent with expected variability due to the transport of long-lived trace gases by the stratospheric Brewer–Dobson circulation. The method used here to construct this CO2 product is unique from other modelling efforts and should be useful for model and satellite validation in the upper troposphere and stratosphere as a prior for inversion modelling and to analyse features of stratosphere–troposphere exchange as well as the stratospheric circulation and its variability.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
Brice Barret ◽  
Yvan Gouzenes ◽  
Eric Le Flochmoen ◽  
Sylvain Ferrant

This paper reports atmospheric profiles of N2O retrieved from Metop/IASI with the Software for the Retrieval of IASI Data (SOFRID) for the 2008–2018 period and their validation with FTIR data from 12 stations of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Changes (NDACC). SOFRID retrievals performed in the 2160–2218 cm−1 spectral window provide 3 independent pieces of information about the vertical profile of N2O. The FTIR versus SOFRID comparisons display a better agreement in the mid-troposphere (MT, 700–350 hPa) than in the lower (LT, Surface–700 hPa) and upper (UT, 350–110 hPa) troposphere with correlation coefficients (R) in the 0.49–0.83 range and comparable variabilities (3–5 ppbv). The agreement for oceanic and coastal stations (R > 0.77) is better than for continental ones (R < 0.72). The SOFRID MT N2O mixing ratios are significantly biased high (up to 16.8 ppbv) relative to FTIR at continental stations while the biases remain below 4.2 ppbv and mostly unsignificant when oceanic data are considered. The average MT decadal trends derived from SOFRID at the 8 NDACC stations with continuous observations during the 2008–2018 period (1.05 ± 0.1 ppbv·yr−1) is in good agreement with the corresponding FTIR trends (1.08 ± 0.1 ppbv·yr−1) and the NOAA-ESRL trends from surface in-situ measurements (0.95 ± 0.02 ppbv·yr−1). In the Northern Hemisphere where they are clearly detected, the N2O MT seasonal variations from SOFRID and FTIR are phased (summer minima) and have similar amplitudes. SOFRID also detects the UT summer maxima indicating independent MT and UT information. The global MT N2O oceanic distributions from SOFRID display low geographical variability and are mainly characterized by enhanced tropical mixing ratios relative to mid and high latitudes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 2827-2841 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Forkman ◽  
O. M. Christensen ◽  
P. Eriksson ◽  
J. Urban ◽  
B. Funke

Abstract. Measurements of mesospheric carbon monoxide, CO, provide important information about the dynamics in the mesosphere region since CO has a long lifetime at these altitudes. Ground-based measurements of mesospheric CO made at the Onsala Space Observatory, OSO, (57° N, 12° E) are presented. The dataset covers the period 2002–2008 and is hence uniquely long for ground-based observations. The simple and stable 115 GHz frequency-switched radiometer, calibration method, retrieval procedure and error characterization are described. A comparison between our measurements and co-located CO measurements from the satellite sensors ACE-FTS on Scisat (v2.2), MLS on Aura (v3-3), MIPAS on Envisat (V3O_CO_12 + 13 and V4O_CO_200) and SMR on Odin (v225 and v021) is carried out. Our instrument, OSO, and the four satellite instruments show the same general variation of the vertical distribution of mesospheric CO in both the annual cycle and in shorter time period events, with high CO mixing ratios during winter and very low amounts during summer in the observed 55–100 km altitude range. During 2004–2008 the agreement of the OSO instrument and the satellite sensors ACE-FTS, MLS and MIPAS (200) is good in the altitude range 55–70 km. Above 70 km, OSO shows up to 25% higher CO column values compared to both ACE and MLS. For the time period 2002–2004, CO from MIPAS (12 + 13) is up to 50% lower than OSO between 55 and 70 km. Mesospheric CO from the two versions of SMR deviates up to ±65% when compared to OSO, but the analysis is based on only a few co-locations.


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